Berkowitz/Finley Lecture Hall

This is a two-day in-person event. It is open to the public but pre-registration is required. Tuesday 29 April 10am-5pm and Wednesday 30 April 9am-4pm. Convenors Tor Krever (University of Cambridge) Nora Jaber (University of Edinburgh) Speakers Zoe Adams (University of Cambridge) Michael Becker (Trinity College Dublin) Michelle Burgis-Kastallho (University of Edinburgh) Tanzil Chowdhury (Queen Mary University of London) Noura Erakat (Rutgers University) Anastasiya Kotova (Lund University) Carl Emilio Lewis (T.M.C. Asser Institute) Robert Knox (University of Liverpool) Sumi Madhok (LSE) Matilde Masetti Placci (University of Edinburgh) Lara Montesinos Coleman (University of Sussex) Mireia Garces De Marcilla Muste (University of Exeter) Nicola Palmer (University of Cape Town) Nicola Perugini (University of Edinburgh) Marius Pieterse (University of the Witwatersrand) Francisco-José Quintana (Geneva Graduate Institute and European University Institute) Fernando Quintana (Queen Mary University of London) Francisco-José Quintana (Geneva Graduate Institute and European University Institute) Juliana Santos de Carvalho (University of Cambridge) Fionn Toland (University of York) Leila Ulrich (University of Oxford) Dimitri Van Den Meerssche (Queen Mary University of London) Marina Veličković (University of Warwick) Description Calls for justice are increasingly articulated in the language of human rights and legality, injustice framed in turn as an issue of illegality. The crystalisation of legality as the vernacular of justice movements can be seen at both the domestic and international level— the proliferation of ‘rights talk’ and turn to litigation by social movements in national courts; global injustice challenged in the language of international law and international justice increasingly synonymous with international criminal justice. Courts and international legal fora are increasingly the privileged sites in which political demands are articulated and battles over rights and legality are fought and settled. The connection between political demands for justice and their articulation in and through the language of rights and legality is often taken for granted. These developments have received only limited scrutiny, their domestic and international dimensions rarely analysed as part of the same phenomenon. Nor has the historical specificity of these developments received sufficient attention. This symposium brings together scholars to reflect on the potentials, limitations, and dangers of the juridification of struggles for justice. It questions and explores the relationship between conceptions of justice and law in diverse contexts and across time. How and to what extent do contemporary justice struggles differ from their antecedents’ uses of law? What is gained—but also potentially lost—through the juridification of political demands for justice? Under what circumstances can (and have) rights/legality be(en) mobilised in pursuit of justice? When might such framing weaken or depoliticise such demands, potentially collapsing conceptions of justice into mere calls for legal remedies? Speakers will bring specific examples from their own work to consider local and international aspects of the juridification of justice. Collectively, we will assess how these historical and contemporary case studies can best inform new strategies of social transformation and to evaluate the uses and limits of rights/legality within such strategies. There will be a sandwich lunch provided on both days. All registered attendees welcome. This event is supported by: CRASSH The Lauterpacht Centre for International Law Girton College, Cambridge (Sheila Lesley Law and Innovation Grant)

In the mare liberum , seafarers are protected by the age-old maritime duty to rescue anyone in distress at sea. This principle has also been codified in various treaties, including the 1974 Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention. This convention was adopted in response to the Titanic disaster and mainly focuses on safety on board of commercial ships. But the most vulnerable people at sea nowadays clearly are irregular migrants, sailing by rubber boats rather than cruise ships. Formally, these migrants are also protected by the non-refoulement principle under refugee and human rights law. Yet in practice, they are subject to a politics of protection which operates through an intermeshing of different legal regimes. Moreover, the rubber boats play a crucial role in this politics of protection, and ultimately preclude the irregular migrants from the protection of the non-refoulement principle. Through the case of the rubber boat, as a transnational legal encounter of people, rules and objects, I investigate the uneven geographies and temporalities of international law as an everyday practice. Moreover, by paying critical attention to how objects participate in actualising certain sets of relations and potentials over others, the concept of transnational legal encounters enables us to critically re-think the production of meanings, legalities and politics, layering complexities to law’s work in and to the world. Tanja Aalberts is Professor of Law and Politics at the department of Transnational Legal Studies, VU Amsterdam.

Time: 2 pm - 3 pm This is an in-person event only. Lecture summary: Debates over various types of maritime resources – be it fisheries, offshore gas & oil deposits, mineral resources of the deep sea or marine genetic resources – have formed an integral part of the development of the law of the sea. Arguments have often been put forward focusing on the relationship between the resource in question and the legal status of a given maritime zone. They are formulated in two principal ways: either that the legal status of a given zone should extend to the status of a resource or, conversely, that the status or characteristics of a given resource provide a (legal and/or moral, ethical) rationale for the legal status of a maritime zone where the resource in question is found. The lecture will discuss selected types of resources and maritime zones. Dr Konrad Marciniak is a Judge at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS). Previously he worked at the Treaty and Legal Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Poland where he was a senior expert on the law of the sea and environmental law (2007-2014), Deputy Director (Deputy Legal Adviser) (2014-2019) and Director (Legal Adviser) (2019-2023). He was also Assistant Lecturer at the Law Faculty, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University, Warsaw (2006-2016); guest lecturer at: Collegium Civitas University in Warsaw, Polish National School of Public Administration, Polish Diplomatic Academy and ITLOS (Nippon programme) (2007-present); Conciliator under Article 2 of Annex V to the Convention; Arbitrator under Article 2 of Annex VII to the Convention; Arbitrator designated pursuant to Article 2(4) of the Schedule to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty; Vice-President to the Bureau of the BBNJ Intergovernmental Conference on an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; Head of the Polish delegation to the EU Working Parties on Public International Law (COJUR; 2019-2023) and on the Law of the Sea (COMAR; 2007-2023) (Chair of the Group in 2011); Head of the Polish delegation to the Council of Europe Committee of Legal Advisors on Public International Law (CAHDI); Co-chair of the Antarctic Working Group of the Polish Intergovernmental Polar Policy Committee. Dr Marciniak was a Visiting Scholar in 2009.

The Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lecture is an annual three-part lecture series given in Cambridge to commemorate the unique contribution to the development of international law of Sir Hersch Lauterpacht. These lectures are given annually by a person of eminence in the field of international law. We will come together to celebrate the life and scholarship of our colleague and friend, Professor Karen Knop (1960-2022). Karen, until her untimely passing, was the Cecil A Wright Chair at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law. A long-time friend of the Lauterpacht Centre, Karen was to have delivered the Centre’s 2025 Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lectures. The 2025 Lectures will take place on 13 and 14 March, over four special sessions, conversing with Karen’s extraordinary body of work across the history and theory of international law, gender and feminism studies, and private and foreign relations law. Four former HLM Lecturers will deliver these lectures in conversation with three discussants, all outstanding scholars mentored by Karen. Registration for 13 March Registration for 14 March Online registration for 13 March Online registration for 14 March